Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Catch-all (EA out now)

Heh. Still definitely some rough edges. I got some text that actually said it was a placeholder and that hopefully no one will see it. Also the crash data upload failed every time last night (about 3 crashes so far).

I really like the combined army battle updates though there seems to me like almost too many options for controlling troops. Sieges are bonkers. It's almost a mini game utilizing engines in breaking down (or defending) the walls. Then when the walls are down everyone rushes in. I've only been a supporting force in them so far but I have no idea what I'm doing. I just follow the crowd.

I really miss my bardiches. Haven't found anything like that yet, short of an Executioners Axe. Also, has anyone found a crossbow that didn't cost $22,000? It's nuts.

Nevin73 wrote:

I got some text that actually said it was a placeholder and that hopefully no one will see it.

Like this?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/idxTHYh.jpg)

Yep, that's the one.

They just released a patch that fixed up a number of my performance issues. Like, for example, before the patch this Kind of Winterfell wouldn't even load:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ygctGNl.jpg)

Edit:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/hSwxecd.jpg)

Aaaaaaaand I just tried fighting in sieges and against kingdom armies and for me the game goes into a slideshow. Dialing the graphics back to Very Low does nothing. It makes me wonder if it's a memory usage issue.

Edit: I also bought a Battanian mountain blade just for the pun.

Did yall see the news that the player count was 160k+? I believe it's gone much higher since.

Hedinn wrote:

Is there a pause button during the combat? I want to see what options I have available to manage my troops but with all the battles ending within a minute it's kind of hard to do.

And also, what's the loop here? Am I supposed to be buying low selling high in the beginning, hunting bandits or what? I don't have much experience with Mount & Blade.

You can hit escape to bring up the menu; I don't think there's a regular pause option. The army control is not explained very well, I'm still trying to figure it out. At the beginning you can generally hit F1 then F2 and have your troops follow you.

The loop is whatever you want it to be. You can trade, buying horses and mules to vastly expand your carry capacity and keep up your speed. You can hire soldiers and fight looters and bandits to collect loot and prisoners to ransom, building xp and improving your forces. You can go rogue, gather bandit troops, and terrorize villages and towns. You can wander around completing quests for people (warning: what people say you need to complete the quest and what you actually need to complete the quest are not always ... consistent). You can follow the story line and search for your kin. You can eventually build up a big army with multiple forces, conquer castles, and establish your own kingdom.

troubleshot wrote:

What's the experience like in towns? Much to do and see? Trading seem robust? I always liked the idea of travelling and trading being a bigger part of the game (I may be the only one!).

Trading is definitely more robust. There's a dynamic price system apparently based on supply and demand, and you can talk to other traders and various townspeople to gather information on market conditions around the world. There's also missions you can undertake to bring supplies to various merchants and crafters and gain faction with them, often with a component that causes you to lose faction with other characters as you compete with them.

Performance is a bit of an issue. I was getting some pretty bad lag spikes for a while. Lowering the settings a bit helped. Annoyingly it only really happened randomly on loads. So I went from perfect frame rate to random freezes. Lowering it helped enough to still be enjoyed.

So far I still see plenty of bugs, but no crashes. Nothing besides the performance stuff really hurting my enjoyment. Definitely needs more polish but hey early access.

Game play wise there's a bit of a shift. It was much easier to go solo in warband. Not so much no. Getting a group is almost required. Also joining up to a faction as a mercenary is really handy. It looks like the management/empire building has been grown considerable. I see proper diplomacy, trade, and army management now.

All in all still having fun.

I think it is awesome that you can see soldiers picking up ammo on the field.

Also, don't sell horses. Keep them so you can carry more sh*t.

This is exactly as good as I'd hoped it'd be. I've only really explored the combat and trading side of things so far, working on building a reputation, training my army, and meeting all the factions before figuring out who to side with. The blacksmithing stuff looks neat but my backstory didn't start me off with much ability for it. Tournaments aren't quite as good for raising money now, but the prizes for winning more than make up for it.

I'm surprised I haven't had any technical issues yet with my older system, but other than load times being a few seconds longer than I'd like I haven't crashed once, even with 200 troops on the field.

Aetius wrote:
Hedinn wrote:

Is there a pause button during the combat? I want to see what options I have available to manage my troops but with all the battles ending within a minute it's kind of hard to do.

And also, what's the loop here? Am I supposed to be buying low selling high in the beginning, hunting bandits or what? I don't have much experience with Mount & Blade.

You can hit escape to bring up the menu; I don't think there's a regular pause option. The army control is not explained very well, I'm still trying to figure it out. At the beginning you can generally hit F1 then F2 and have your troops follow you.

Since that post, I've found a way to study the menu structure. When you win a fight, your troops go into celebration mode but the game waits for you to press Tab to go to the stats screen. You can use this time to see what menu options you have. Your troops won't execute any commands (they are busy celebrating after all) but at least you can learn the structure.

BTW having all your troops follow you is often counter-productive if you want to avoid unnecessary casualties. But it also depends on armies' composition.

My standard orders are to have infantry make Steel Wall, archers Fire at Will and have my few horse archers follow me. Then I proceed to circle the enemy, peppering them with arrows and splitting up their forces.

This tactic, however, worked badly against forest bandits that are archers, so instead of Steel Wall, I've ordered my infantry to charge while my cavalry distracts the archers by circling them. This allows for zero casualties every time. No idea what I am going to do when I encounter mixed compositions of infantry+archers.

BTW, sometimes your archers get bugged and stop (or rather don't start) shooting. No idea what causes it.

IMO battles need to be slowed down a bit because as of now fighting is so fast, most of your tactical maneuvering is useless - by the time you move some of your troops to encircle enemies, the main force either won or lost their fight.

They're probably out of ranged ammo and don't have a melee weapon to switch to.

I also saw a perk that lets you arrange your any before a fight.

Stengah wrote:

They're probably out of ranged ammo and don't have a melee weapon to switch to.

The bug is that archers don't start shooting at the beginning of the fight, happens to me every 5th or so fight.

Sometimes my archers don't fire until the enemy is like 30 feet away from them. Maybe they have trouble seeing at night?

Also, what's everyone's experiences with the politics simulation? In my game, the Empire is going nuts. The Western Empire conquered the Battanians before I even had enough renown to join a faction, and the Southern Empire swallowed up the Aserai. I'm currently fighting a losing war on behalf of the Vlandians but the Western Empire seems to have unlimited forces.

It's a little frustrating because my personal force isn't big enough to break any of the big armies, and three times now when I've joined a friendly army they've done the same thing: Siege an enemy castle until a bigger enemy force shows up, then run away, get caught and die. I can't start my own army because the King passed a law that all vassals get -2 influence per turn, so me and several vassals are sitting at negative influence values. All I can do is run around and snipe weak nobles and ransom them. I've made a lot of money I guess, but Vlandia's days are numbered.

I feel like there's some balance work to be done.

BuzzW wrote:

I'm currently fighting a losing war on behalf of the Vlandians

** sideyes in Battanian **

I picked Vlandians because they had a bonus to couched lancing and everyone knows couched lances are how you win Mount & Blade.

Also I'm assuming child names are random because the king named two of his sons Morcon.

Anyone try MP yet?

Rat Boy wrote:

It makes me wonder if it's a memory usage issue.

Definitely feels like a memory leak. Did a 70 vs 70 fight when I first loaded up and there wasn't a single hitch. After an hour or so, slideshow again.

Rat Boy wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

It makes me wonder if it's a memory usage issue.

Definitely feels like a memory leak. Did a 70 vs 70 fight when I first loaded up and there wasn't a single hitch. After an hour or so, slideshow again.

So, restart the game every hour? Memory leak fun makes me feel like it's 2006 again!

garion333 wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

It makes me wonder if it's a memory usage issue.

Definitely feels like a memory leak. Did a 70 vs 70 fight when I first loaded up and there wasn't a single hitch. After an hour or so, slideshow again.

So, restart the game every hour? Memory leak fun makes me feel like it's 2006 again!

Each patch they've pushed out the last two days does seem to alleviate some of my performance issues in different areas. Credit to them for putting out two patches in as many days as I thought it'd take them as many weeks to release.

Anyone know how to get out of first person mode in battles? R just zooms in and out.

I haven't had any memory leak issues, even with 4 hour sessions.

Even though I can't see any indication in the patch notes, it does seem to be running better for me even with longer play sessions. On the other hand, I haven't tried a siege lately.

Being a mercenary for a nation at war pays so damn well. A single fight against an army of say 30 to 40 can easily net over 5k. By the time the war ended I doubled my army, had some top tier gear, and 20k in the bank.

Problem is the war ended. Probable go ask to break my contract now and go find another war.

Edit: Also I found that breaking weapons into materials can make a decent amount of money too.

I miss the days of soldiers training up even when they aren't fighting. Strangely I've found that I get more soldiers leveling up when I auto-run easy looter battles than when I run the battle myself.

If you have lots of money, it is silly how easy it is to end a war. "Hey I just took your city, but here's $30k or so to let's be friends again."

Nevin73 wrote:

I miss the days of soldiers training up even when they aren't fighting. Strangely I've found that I get more soldiers leveling up when I auto-run easy looter battles than when I run the battle myself.

If you have lots of money, it is silly how easy it is to end a war. "Hey I just took your city, but here's $30k or so to let's be friends again."

I think there's actually of a perk for that:

Leadership Level 25:

Combat Tips – small XP boost each day to your party; party member effect
Raise The Meek – medium XP boost each day to tier 1-3 troops; party member effect

I picked the raise the meek one. Getting people to a higher level faster seemed better.

So it seems I'm permanently stuck in first person mode and can't see my horse. R only zooms in and out. I think I'm going to have to restart. Kinda sucks.

Nevin73 wrote:

I miss the days of soldiers training up even when they aren't fighting. Strangely I've found that I get more soldiers leveling up when I auto-run easy looter battles than when I run the battle myself.

Perhaps you are killing too many guys by yourself when you run the battle?